Book review Mr. Bliss by J.R.R. Tolkien

 I haven’t read much from Tolkien yet. I saw the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, which made want to read his books. I’ve read one book from him so far, which also wasn’t in the Middle Earth universe, and that was The Story of Kullervo. It wasn’t really for me unfortunately. I found it hard to read about Kullervo, as it was such a dark character. For me a bit too dark, but I’m probably a bit of a sensitive soul, when it comes to these things. 😇

However, I liked this book, Mr. Bliss. It’s a children’s story, so no surprise there. 😂 I read it to my son. He didn’t understand much of it yet, but at least he liked the drawings, as he kept pointing at them or kept trying to grab the pages.



I got this book from the library. And I’m not sure if every edition is like this, but I really liked this one. At one side, when you pointed the book vertically, it was the edited story.  Which means it held the drawings and the text was typed and placed nicely besides the drawings.

But when you would turn the book to the other side and horizontally, you would get the manuscript and how it was handwritten by Tolkien himself.

The story itself wasn’t really in depth, but it didn’t really matter, as it was written really well. Tolkien himself also wrote this book originally to read to his children. They must hold really beautiful memories to these moments. I hope I can make it just as memorable for my son, or at least try, I’m probably not as talented as Tolkien 'though.

The story itself is about Mr. Bliss and one day he decides to buy a yellow car. And I must say, what a fancy ride he’s got there... As he forgets his purse, he gives his bike as collateral. But as he’s an awful driver, he probably shouldn’t have made this investment in the first place.

A little warning, when you read books like these as an adult, then you’ll probably overthink it too much. As the first thing I was thinking about this, was: “Oh boy, driving without an insurance eh…(shaking head in disbelief with disapproval). While on the road, he comes across lots of people and lots of bad luck.

There’s a lot more to it, but I can’t give away too much, without giving any spoilers. But it definitely was short and fun read. I would probably read this again to my son in future, but I’m more curious for his other books as well.(Only for me ofcourse)

What is your favorite children’s book?

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